Arriving just a week after news that Abu Dhabi is building one of the world’s biggest water parks – 15 hectares of splash-tastic fun, no less – the launch of new eco-minded exhibition Water: H20 = Life could certainly have been better timed. Organised by Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage in collaboration with the American Museum of Natural History and the National Museum of Australia (among others), the show sets out to deliver that oft-recited message: that, especially in desert regions such as ours, that wet stuff that comes out of the tap is the world’s single most precious natural commodity – certainly not the sort of thing you’d want to waste gallons of everyday on slides to keep the tourists happy.
Unfortunate contradictions aside, the exhibition is at least thorough, and manages to convey its point effectively without ever labouring it. The large, rectangular space – which has sat tragically dormant since the conclusion of Hassan Sharif’s Experiments & Objects art show in June – is portioned up into 10 different zones, each looking to educate visitors on a different aspect of man’s relationship with water.
From the off, preachiness is kept to a merciful minimum, with an artily illuminated mist of water vapour just beyond the entrance prompting awe rather than conscience-pricking guilt. Next, it’s a whistle-stop natural history lesson, as you step through sections detailing water’s role in shaping our planet’s landscape and the evolution of marine life; the former illustrated by a giant, illuminated globe displaying satellite images of the Earth.
By the half-way mark, though, we’re brought right up to the present day, ready to lay into the worst, most wasteful water guzzlers ever to walk the Earth: you lot. It all starts off gently enough, with little videos providing brief lessons in the history of things like irrigation and damming. But by the time you’re being fed statistics about the average person’s daily water wastage, or learning how much of the stuff is involved in the production of common household items, you’ll be wracked with guilt over the extra-long shower you enjoyed that morning. The points really hit the mark, too, and it’s all thanks to the interactivity and accessibility of the exhibits; be they 3D videos demonstrating how human population ravages groundwater supplies, or a microscope that sheds light on the surprising multitude of microorganisms contained in a single droplet of moisture.
If it all feels very slick, then thank the Americans – the show is more or less a 1:1 transplant of one that originally appeared in New York back in 2007. But that’s not to say there’s no regional relevance, and the final room – created especially for the Abu Dhabi version – makes sure visitors leave with local concerns at the forefront of their minds. Prefaced by Sheikh Zayed’s famous quote about how ‘our environment and resources don’t belong to us, but they are the responsibility bestowed upon us’, the exhibition’s climax rams home the message of water as a scarce, finite resource, via detailed information on traditional Arabian wells, oases, pearling and fishing.
So there we have it. There’s no denying that, for adults, the whole experience is a little bit patronising. Yes, we know we’re supposed to turn the tap off while brushing our teeth and no, we’re not going to start washing ourselves with a bucket and sponge. For kids, though, it’s far more relevant, driving home the message of preciousness while providing enough hands-on moments to make sure the sentiments don’t whistle over their pretty little heads. It’s on for a while yet, but check it out early and you’ll sound quite the environmentalist at your next dinner party.
Water: H20 = Life runs until January 5 at Qasr Al Hosn Cultural Quarter Hall, Hamdan Street. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.waterexhibitionadach.ae
